BJP shrugs off Sonia’s passionate salvo, asks who is taking her citizenship away

New Delhi: Swatting away Sonia Gandhi’s emotional response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi where she declared her unflinching devotion for India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday questioned the Congress Chief’s passionate declaration asking who was trying to take her citizenship away and also called on her to refrain from making statements that did not befit her post.

Speaking to ANI, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that her statement was completely unaccounted for and that she should have used words befitting her senior title.

“She is a coward by nature, so such strong words do not befit her. Why is she making such statements now? Who is taking away her citizenship? Whether she stays in ten janpath or tihar jail I can’t say. But the fact remains that no one is driving her away from this country,” Swamy said.

Asserting that ‘escapism’ was Sonia’s forte, he added that she had absolutely no credibility and also has a long history of running away from India when faced with problems.

“In 1971 she ran away during the Bangladesh war with her children, then in 1977 she hid in the Italian embassy, in 1991 she put all her jewellery and precious belonging into a trunk put it on a plane to Singapore and deposited there. She has a history of running away when facing a crisis,” Swamy said.

Hitting back at Prime Minister Modi for “taunting to shame her for her birth in Italy”, onia Gandhi in an emotional speech during an election rally in Kerala yesterday said she would breathe her last in India and it was in this country where her ashes would mingle with those of her loved ones.

“But it is here in my country, India, that the blood of my loved ones is mingled. It is here that I will breathe my last and it is here my ashes will mingle with those of my loved ones,” Sonia said at the end of her speech.

Saying that Prime Minister Modi can sink to whichever depths he wishes to challenge her integrity, Gandhi added, “He cannot take the truth away from my commitment and my love for India, my country. I cannot expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, to understand these feelings, but I know and I am sure that you will.”

Gandhi’s remarks came days after the Prime Minister made a cutting remark about her Italian origins and a Milan court verdict which found bribes were paid in India for a helicopter deal when the Congress was in power.

“I have no family in Italy. I have never been there,” the Prime Minister said on Friday, stressing the verdict in Italy could not have been influenced by his government.

“I will die in India and my ashes will be immersed in India as the blood of my loved ones are mixed in this soil. I also know PM Modi will never understand my integrity, and him and the RSS will always abuse me,” Sonia added. (ANI)